MCA president Liow Tiong Lai said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has given “positive” signals over the hudud row which has left BN component parties up in arms.
Liow said this after revealing that he had met the prime minister on PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member’s Bill.
“Yes, we already met the prime minister and the MCA expressed our views on this matter.
“We demanded that any amendments needed to get BN’s consultation and in the spirit of consensus. We need to have the BN spirit.
“We got a positive response form the prime minister,” he told journalists when met while on the Sungai Besar by-election campaign trail in Sekinchan.
Liow and several other ministers had threatened to resign if Hadi’s Bill was passed after the Umno-dominated government unilaterally allowed Hadi’s motion on the Bill to go to the floor in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Umno information chief Annuar Musa said a briefing of BN component parties on Hadi’s Bill scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed.
Annuar, in a statement today, said this was done at the request of the BN component parties.
“All of them are busy with the two by-elections.
“BN will focus on winning both elections and agreed to further improve our solidarity, consensus and spirit of working together within BN,” he said.
The Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections are set for June 18.
The bill is colloquially referred to as the Hudud Bill but it is specifically to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 or Act 355.
At present, Act 355 limits the Syariah Courts punishment to a maximum fine of RM5,000, three years’ jail or six strokes of the rotan.
The amendment seeks to increase this limit which will allow Kelantan to partially implement hudud as it already has such an enactment, which for now, cannot be enforced.
The Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code II provides for between 40 to 100 strokes when it comes to the rotan.-Mkini
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